How to take Rakuten cashback as Amex points or Bilt points (and when it's worth more than cash)

The setting most people never touch

Rakuten’s default payout is a check. Most members leave it there. That’s fine if your cashback is small. It’s a mistake if you’re routing $1,000 purchases through the portal, because Rakuten will pay the same dollars as Amex Membership Rewards or Bilt points instead, and those points are worth more than a dollar per hundred to anyone who redeems them for flights or hotels.

The trade: $1 of cashback becomes 100 points. You give up cash you can spend anywhere for a currency worth more in a narrower set of places. The first half of this guide is mechanics; the second half is whether the trade is right for you.

The mechanics: Amex Membership Rewards

Linking. In Rakuten, open account settings and find “how you’re getting paid.” Choose Membership Rewards, and Rakuten hands you to an Amex login to authorize the link. Any U.S. Amex card enrolled in Membership Rewards works (Platinum, Gold, Green, Blue Business Plus, the Everyday cards). Corporate cards are excluded under the program terms. Co-brand cards (Delta, Hilton, Marriott) and the Blue Cash family earn something other than Membership Rewards, so they can’t be linked.

Conversion. 100 Membership Rewards points per $1 of cashback, which is 1 point per cent. A store paying 10% cashback pays 10 points per dollar spent. A store paying 2% pays 2 points per dollar.

Payout. Points follow Rakuten’s normal quarterly schedule. Per Rakuten’s own Big Fat Check FAQ, cashback earned January 1 to March 31 pays May 15, April 1 to June 30 pays August 15, July 1 to September 30 pays November 15, and October 1 to December 31 pays February 15. The minimum to trigger a payment is $5.01 (500 points), and anything under that rolls into the next quarter. Points can take a few days after the 15th to land in your Amex account, and they aren’t redeemable until Rakuten’s transfer completes.

The one rule that matters. Rakuten pays each quarter in whatever method is set at the moment it runs the payment. Rakuten says you can change the method “at any time,” but it doesn’t publish a cutoff, and a change made on the 14th may or may not catch that cycle. Nothing is retroactive. If you want your July to September cashback as points, the setting needs to say points well before November 15. Check it now, not the week of.

The mechanics: Bilt

Bilt joined as a Rakuten payout option on November 6, 2025. You don’t need a Bilt credit card, just a free Bilt Rewards account. The link is made from the Bilt side: in the app, go to Rewards, then Everyday Rewards, then “Create & link.” The email address on your Bilt account has to match the one on Rakuten. Once linked, Rakuten pays your quarterly balance as Bilt points at the same 1 cent to 1 point rate as Amex, with one big exception.

The May 2026 change. For the first six months, every Bilt member got 100 points per $1 regardless of status. That promotional rate ended with the May 15, 2026 payout, which was the last one paid at 1:1 for everyone. Starting with the August 15 payment (covering April to June earnings), the rate depends on Bilt status:

Rakuten points don’t count toward Bilt status, so you can’t earn your way from Blue to Silver through the portal. For a Blue member, the decision is easy: Amex pays 100 per dollar, Bilt pays 50, Amex wins unless you need a Bilt-only partner. For Silver and above, the two are equal at conversion, and the choice comes down to which transfer partners you’ll actually use.

What the points are worth

A point is worth what you redeem it for. Three reference values:

• The floor. Membership Rewards redeem for statement credits at 0.6 cents, or 1 cent through Amex Travel for flights and through a Schwab Platinum. Bilt points redeem toward rent at 0.55 cents or through Bilt Travel at 1.25 cents. If you’ll only ever use these floor options, points are worth no more than cash, and often less.
• Published valuations. The Points Guy’s September 2026 figures: Membership Rewards 2.0 cents, Bilt 2.2 cents. For comparison, Chase Ultimate Rewards 2.05, Capital One 1.85. These are estimates of what a reasonably skilled redeemer gets on average, not a promise.
• Realistic transfers. Economy awards on Air France Flying Blue, Avianca LifeMiles, or Virgin Atlantic tend to land at 1.3 to 1.6 cents. Business-class awards on ANA, Qatar, or Virgin Atlantic can clear 3 to 5 cents. Hyatt (Bilt only) reliably delivers 1.6 to 2 cents on mid-tier hotels.

Transfer bonuses tip the math. Amex is running 30% bonuses to British Airways, Iberia, and Aer Lingus Avios through September 27, 2026, and 30% to Hilton through October 14. Bilt’s most recent bonus, to Virgin Atlantic, ended September 1, and nothing is active as of this writing. A 30% bonus turns 10,000 points into 13,000 partner miles, which adds a third to the value of every Rakuten dollar you took as points that quarter.

The partner lists. Amex transfers to about 20 programs, including ANA, Air France KLM, Avianca, British Airways, Delta, Qatar, Singapore, Virgin Atlantic, Hilton, and Marriott. Bilt transfers 1:1 to 18 airlines and 7 hotel chains, and the ones Amex doesn’t reach are the reason to pick it: Alaska Atmos Rewards, United, Southwest, Turkish, Japan Airlines, World of Hyatt, and IHG. If your travel is Alaska, United, or Hyatt, Bilt is the only payout that gets you there.

The math: $1,000 at a 10% Rakuten rate

A $1,000 order at a store paying 10% (Bergdorf Goodman’s rate is 15% right now; StubHub is at 10%). Same click, same purchase, three different payout settings.

Down the “conservative” column, points return 1.5x cash for anyone with an Amex Membership Rewards card or Silver Bilt status, and about 0.75x cash for a Blue Bilt member. The floor column is the warning: redeem for a statement credit or rent and you take a 40% haircut versus cash. Points only beat cash when they leave the program as a transfer.

That last line is the honest version. There’s no partial credit for holding points you’ll never use well.

Who should stay with cash

• You redeem points for statement credits or gift cards. At 0.6 cents per Membership Rewards point, $100 of cashback becomes $60. Cash wins by a wide margin.
• You have no Amex Membership Rewards card and Blue Bilt status. Bilt at 50 points per dollar needs a 2-cent redemption just to match cash. That’s possible with Hyatt or Alaska, but it’s a coin flip for most people.
• You’re paying down debt or cashback is part of your budget. Points don’t pay bills. A dollar today at 1 cent beats a hypothetical 2 cents in eighteen months.
• Your Amex account might close or lapse. See the gotchas.
• You live outside the U.S. The Amex program is U.S. cards only under Rakuten’s terms; Rakuten Canada and Rakuten UK don’t offer either points option.

For everyone else, particularly anyone already holding a Platinum or Gold and transferring to partners, switch the setting today. New users should set it before their first purchase clears so the $50 welcome bonus lands as 5,000 points.

How Rakuten works, and how to get the $50 welcome bonus →

The gotchas

The Amex account must stay open and in good standing. Rakuten’s program terms are explicit: your linked card account “must remain open, active and in good standing from the time the points are earned through transfer and fulfillment.” Cancel the card in October and the points from July to September never arrive. If you’re planning to close an Amex card, switch Rakuten to a different Membership Rewards card first, or to cash, and wait for the payout before closing.

Nothing is retroactive. A payment made as cash stays cash. A payment made as Bilt at 50 per dollar doesn’t get topped up if you earn Silver a week later. The setting at the moment of payment is final. Check it in the first week of February, May, August, and November.

The pending balance conversion is unclear. Rakuten’s Amex terms say undisbursed cashback converts to points when you link. Upgraded Points reports the existing balance still pays as cash after a switch. We couldn’t resolve this against a current help page; if it matters to you, ask Rakuten support before switching.

Bilt rates for status members aren’t locked. Both Frequent Miler and Rakuten describe the Silver-and-above rate as subject to change. The May 2026 cut hit Blue; a future cut could hit anyone.

Tracking failures cost more when you’re taking points. A missed click on a 10% rate at $1,000 costs $100 in cash and 10,000 points at the points setting, which is $150 to $200 of travel. Clean session, no ad blocker, no second portal, same as always. Don’t let the Capital One Shopping extension activate over a Rakuten click; it pays gift cards only and it kills the Rakuten commission.

Tax treatment. For personal purchases, the IRS treats a rebate tied to a purchase as a price reduction, not income, and Rakuten doesn’t issue a 1099 for cashback. Taking the rebate as points doesn’t change that. The welcome and referral bonuses are the gray area: they require a purchase but aren’t proportional to it, and we haven’t found an authoritative ruling either way. If your Rakuten earnings are business expenses, the rebate (in either form) reduces the deductible amount. None of this is tax advice.

Points post slowly. Cashback shows as pending after the retailer’s return window closes, confirms weeks later, then waits for the quarterly date. A January purchase at the points setting becomes redeemable points in late May. Don’t plan a specific award around cashback that hasn’t paid yet.

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Written and verified by the Stackable team · Paxton Pennington, founder

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